Letter about J. L. Barton and Civil War substitutes, 1863

This letter seeks payment of $300 from the town of Houlton to compensate Barton for the expense of hiring a substitute for him when he was drafted in the the Union Army.

Many towns paid young men to hire substitutes in an effort to avoid losing all their young men in the war. There were towns during the Civil War, both North and South, where nearly all of their military aged men were killed.